loved it !! such a treat to hear the two of you talk, can’t wait for part 2

July 19, 2008 @ 3:08 am

David Bernal

Aaawesome!!! as always
Loved Doug’s history; and what you guys talked about learning/animation process was great, cant wait for the next part(s)!
Also pretty sweet division sound effect when hearing with headphones.
p.s.
Btw, about downloading i through itunes, this link (http://www.itunes.com/podcast?id=212448390) might be helpful, should direct to the Spline Cast section on itunes
Thanks tons Andrew and Doug!

Kyle Maloney

Does it cut off at 39: 48 for anyone else? The whole rest of it is silent for me.

July 19, 2008 @ 1:32 pm

Kyle Maloney

Never mind guys, switching to Quick Time seems to have fixed it. Still weird though.

July 19, 2008 @ 1:52 pm

Thomas Yu

Thanks guys! Can’t wait to hear the next part!

July 19, 2008 @ 10:22 pm

Arling Common

Hey,
I am really glad that you interviewed Doug. He is very talented and certainly deserves praise for the work he and his team did on Presto. BUT would it be possible, in future Spline-Casts, to interview somebody with a variety of experience.
It’s always nice to hear all the stories that go on at Pixar but I think it would be interesting if we could hear interviews with people who have had a bit more history. Similar reasons to why I enjoyed the Brad Bird splinecast (family dog, Disney, iron giant, incredibles etc) and some of the Animation Podcast interviews (Burny Mattinson, James Baxter). How about somebody like Bud Lucky?

I really hope I am not being too critical though. I love spline doctors.

July 20, 2008 @ 2:43 am

Aaron

Love it!!

July 20, 2008 @ 2:59 am

Lars

Thanx for the great interview. It’s great to hear someone talk about his struggles in animation. Things I am going through now.

Grtz Lars

July 20, 2008 @ 4:18 am

Dr. Gordon

Arling,

Doug has a wealth of experience and is considered to be one of the best animators in the world. Im sorry that you don’t think he has enough experience, but I think he is quite worthy of being interviewed. Spline Cast is dedicated to interviewing whoever, not just old industry vets…

Man, some people are never satisfied… If you don’t like the interviews, go over to Animation Podcast. They have sponsors…

-Andrew

July 20, 2008 @ 9:27 am

Chris

Thanks so much!!! What you’re sharing, and all the work you do is pure gold! Thank you!

July 20, 2008 @ 7:34 pm

BNicolucci

Woo, really makes me excited for part 2. Doug’s lecture at AM was an eye opener for me, along with Mark Oftedal’s. Both really made me start to think past the 12 principles. Not that I still don’t have a ton to learn about them or lessen their importance, but it shows that in the end, entertainment is the key.

Its great to hear Doug’s perspective of first getting in and “knowing nothing”, building and refining his workflow over several films, and then coming into a position where he is considered the cream of the crop.

My current mentor Brett, seems to remember vividly the day that Doug showed that Woody breaking out of the box shot at dailies, how it floored everybody, and that they’d never seen anything like it before in CG.

(what’s that odd antique furniture behind him to the left ? Looks kind of cool. . )

July 20, 2008 @ 11:40 pm

Dr. Hathaway

David:

I believe that’s called an “animation desk.” Apparently, animators of the olden days would turn the circular “disk” around until it left grooves in the desk. One could also raise and lower the angle of the desk with a series of knobs. It still remains unclear exactly how this process resulted in the earlier forms of computer animation though. Did the disk contain some sort of interface through which the animator could telepathically instruct the computer? Where did all these desks go? What are the little metal “pegs” that are placed at specific distances across what appears to be some sort of “peg bar” on either side of the disk? Conduits for electrical brain impulses? No one knows. Perhaps there existed some well-guarded esoteric methods that one day after extensive thorough research will be revealed to us.

Dr. Hathaway

July 21, 2008 @ 9:54 am

K.Borcz

I’m sooo excited to have something to listen to while on the plane trip out to the ComicCon.

Thanks for posting this.

I LOVED Presto and it’s been well watched on my IPOD.
Presto has to be one of my favorite shorts after What’s Opera Doc and Duck Amuck (also on my pod).

Awesome, can’t say how happy I am to hear a bit from Doug’s method and background. To this day, Woody getting out of the box is still my single favorite moment in any animated movie. It’s the shot the keeps me going really.

BTW Doctors, been following your site for a while and I really like it so keep injecting us with our daily (mah, maybe weekly) dose of animation goodies!

I savor the flavorful goodness of your Splinecast! This is EXACTLY like being in a recording booth listening to two animators shoot the breeze. More more more.

July 21, 2008 @ 6:57 pm

Jon

Great interview Andrew, can’t wait for the rest. I was wondering if Doug will go into more detail as to how he approached the woody out of the box shot, because I know he said he changed his method throughout his career and I was just wondering if he’ll talk more about that shot, as well as how he approached shots in other films since TS2.

July 21, 2008 @ 8:20 pm

Dr. Gordon

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the feedback. Im not sure if Doug talks about that shot in general, but I do know that he gets into other shot work.

Arling – I hope you are not put off by my wise cracking response to your post. I’m just kidding. I would love to get Bud Lucky and anyone else.

Larry_g1s

Great interview Andrew! It’s awesome to hear about Doug’s background story and his passion for animation. Thanks for posting!

July 22, 2008 @ 11:54 am

Dave Vasquez

This is awesome interview Andrew. Thank you! I really enjoyed learning more about Doug and his process. Along with Brian, my mind was blown when I saw his Animation Mentor lecture (along with Mark Oftedal’s). It’s funny how he mentioned some early tests of Woody and Buzz being animated to lines from Turner and Hooch and other stuff. Years ago when I was at the Academy, I remember Pete Doctor coming to speak and he showed those clips. I still hadn’t decided (or realized) if animation was something I could do professionally, but after I saw those I was completely moved. There was even one of Buzz doing a Jack Nicholsen line. Man I wish those were on a dvd somewhere. It was phenomenal stuff and one of the things that made me want to be an animator. Keep up the great work guys!

July 22, 2008 @ 11:58 am

Carlos Baena

Putting this things and spending the time to create them, finding busy people to share what they know, is really not easy at all.

I think it’s awesome that Andrew does this for the industry.
So while it’s great to provide feedback, keep always in mind he’s doing this out of his own will and his also busy schedule.

Long time ago I hope to see a Doug Sweetland interview. You know in 2005, The Strut Your Reel web site interviewed some of animators includes Bluesky’s Mark Behm, your co-worker Cameron Miyasaki, R+H’s John K. Goodman, and Bluesky’s Michael Thurmeier. When Mike was asked which artist he would like most to see on the Strut interview, he said Doug Sweetland. If he could leave a question to him, he will ask how Doug can handle such complicated overlaps that gain a incredible real feeling. That is just what I want to know.

Also, in your past post “Overlap” on Jan 04, 2006, You mentioned the famous shot of “Woody walks out of the Box”. The more I saw about Doug, the more I hope to know more about him and his history. I like your post very much and translated and re-post on my blog to let more Chinese animators to know those animation mosters. See here:http://hi.baidu.com/victoranimator/blog/item/bb76490ff40ea52a6159f356.html

Compares to other Pixar animators, Doug is always keep a low profile, he is kind of mysterious. Very few info about him on the Internet. The only talks was Scott Clark(the pre-doctor?) and Doug on Cars, that’s not enough at all.

Doug did so many excellent shots that became classic later, Woody walks out of box, Sully faints three times, Syndrome laughs at Mr. Incredible”You sir truly are, Mr, Incredible, I idolized you” but “Mr, Inc calling for help?”So HOT!

When I knew the latest short of Pixar “Presto” is directed by Doug, and supervised by YOU, I thought, The chance is coming. Haha.

Congrats and BIG BIG Thanks for your work and all your contributions to SplineDoctors! Very hope to see the next part soon…

Hi, Andrew, I know I was a little bit wordy.
Your post name “Overlap in Style”. Sorry for mis-typing.

Carlos is right. Great animators are always busy. Each reader of this site need to be clear, to getting such wonderful share and be able to leave feedback is our privilege, not the right. Anyway, I’m thankful that currently the animaton environment is much better than 5 years ago, then there is much less info and materials on Internet. Blog is a HUGE resource for us, let’s keep a good use of it and foster it. Each people who would like to share these should be respected. They enrich the whole animation environment, keep it away from a close, confidential, “back to back” one.

Thank you all.

July 22, 2008 @ 8:07 pm

Sant

Hey Andrew,

Awesome Splinecast, really looking forward to part 2!!

His story he told of his take on Rocky’s reaction was hilarious! I keep wondering about how Pixar was in the early days (well, not so early, the Bug’s Life days). I wish I could see some pictures of the old studio you guys had.

Doug is really admirable, we got to watch his student film (and Mark Oftedal’s too) and they are both really amazing, extremely amazing considering they are student films. As BNicolucci said his lectures are real eye openers, they make you think of animation in a whole different level.

Again, thanks!

Sant

July 22, 2008 @ 10:58 pm

Graham

I’m really really happy you did this interview and I can’t wait until part 2. THANK YOU!

July 23, 2008 @ 8:28 pm

Chuck (not amuck)

Awesome interview!

Kyle> The second half of this interview doesn’t play on my iPod either. Perhaps we could get a re-encoded replacement?

[...] of others has really pushed me to learn as much as I have so far. Some of these people included Doug Sweetland who gave me lots of great feedback early on when I was still in college. I would send him my reel, [...]

February 2, 2009 @ 12:54 pm

Stephen J. Davidson

Hello

Can someone please tell me were I can get those glossies? I would like to get the character sheets they send out so I can master the characters.

[...] July 20, 2008 by Ed LiuThe Spline Doctors weblog, an educational weblog run by Pixar animators, has posted the first part of their podcast interview with Doug Sweetland, the director of Pixar’s latest theatrical short Presto.(via Cartoon Brew)Related posts:Brad [...]

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